Durham have pulled off a superb victory, defeating Warwickshire by 11 runs in three days in an absolute thriller at Emirates Durham ICG today.
In a tense finish it was down to Durham needing one wicket and Warwickshire 11 runs with Ben Stokes taking the final wicket to see celebrations all around as Durham recorded their fourth victory of the season.
Day three began with Durham having a 210 run lead and 8 wickets down. It was only 15 minutes into the morning when Mark Wood was bowled by Wright leaving Durham, 156-9.
Michael Richardson continued at the crease and dictated proceedings with the last man in Chris Rushworth. Richardson batted superbly to bring up his 50 with back to back boundaries with his half century off 79 balls.
The pair added a match winning 42 runs for the final wicket before Richardson picked out Javid to depart for 55, with Rushworth unbeaten on 13 and Durham all out for 198 with a lead of 256.
Needing 257 for the win it was the in-form Graham Onions who got the ball rolling for Durham getting the first three wickets.
He first dismissed Chopra lbw followed by a superb delivery which cleaned up Porterfield’s stumps to have the visitors 26-2.
Onions then followed up with his third wicket with Troughton picking out Ben Stokes to be dismissed for 13.
Mark Wood was brought into the attack and struck early in his spell taking the wicket of Westwood who was looking comfortable at the crease until he edged one to Phil Mustard on 21 with Warwickshire 74-4.
Ambrose and Clarke then got a roll on for Warwickshire combining to put on a crucial 53 run stand before Ben Stokes got the breakthrough clean bowling Ambrose after he made a well-earned 46. Stokes then got another wicket one ball later when he once again found the stumps, going through Clarke to have Warwickshire 131-6.
Will Smith then picked up his first wicket with spin getting the wicket of Barker as Stoneman took the catch to edge Durham closer to win, needing just three more wickets.
Patel and Javid then took it upon themselves to ensure a nail-biting finish when they put together a superb 86 run 8th wicket partnership to get Warwickshire back in the contest.
The pair were poised at the crease with Durham throwing their pace and spin attack at the pair who got their side within 25 runs of victory before Graham Onions finally got the breakthrough with Borthwick taking a good catch in the slips to dismiss Javid for 44.
The wicket ensured a very tense finish and with Patel at the crease it looked like the match could still go either way. The big moment came when Onions got his 5th wicket to dismiss Patel with Keaton Jennings composed under a high one to take the catch leaving Warwickshire 9 wickets down needed 22 runs.
When the next two balls went for consecutive boundaries nerves were even higher and fingernails shorter. The Warwickshire pair survived the remainder of the Onions over and it was left to Ben Stokes who had the last man in, Rankin on strike to deliver the final blow.
Stokes did just that trapping Rankin lbw to leave Warwickshire 11 runs short with celebrations on the field as Durham won a thriller in front of their home crowd.
Durham now sit second on the championship table just 8.5 points behind Yorkshire who defeated Middlesex today.